Baltimore-area high school sports photos from the months of December and January.

Glenn Graham, The Baltimore Sun

Playing from behind against the New Town boys basketball team is a difficult chore.

The No. 11 Titans always play stingy team defense, have a point guard in Danny Shand that can control the game and have shooters who have emerged.

Dulaney on Wednesday was the latest team to find out just how difficult the chore is.

Playing on their home court, New Town used a 12-0 run at the end of the first half to push ahead, and when the No. 13 Lions tried to get close in the third quarter, the Titans turned them away with a resounding, 57-40 win.

It's the eighth straight win for the Titans, who are 11-4. In handing Dulaney its first loss (13-1), the Titans held their opponent 31 points under their season average of 71 points per game.

Senior guard Kenny Sherrod led the Titans with 17 points, including four 3-pointers, and Shand finished with 11 points while taking care of the basketball and handing out a number of assists.

After seeing their 10-point halftime lead dwindle to to 29-26 in the opening minutes of the third quarter, New Town got baskets from Devin Smith (12 points) and Shand to weather the immediate storm, and then gradually pulled away.

"It's about tempo," New Town coach Mike Daniel said. "What we try to do if we can is get the tempo, then we can do some things. When you have a point guard like Danny and my shooters are coming on, we're in every game."

The Titans were coming off an impressive showing at the Basketball Academy over the weekend, during which they handled Aberdeen and then upset No. 7 Edmondson.

On Wednesday, the Titans picked up right where they left off. Trailing 19-17 midway through the second quarter, they took control by scoring the final 12 points of the half to build a 29-19 lead. Sherrod hit two of his 3-pointers during that stretch, including one at the halftime buzzer.

In the second half, the Titans made an early adjustment on defense after the Lions opened with two 3's early. A 21-point fourth quarter put the game away.

"We're playing our best basketball right now — playing well as a team," Shand said. "[It starts with] a lot of defense and we're more focused, come into practice ready to work."

The Lions, who got 10 points each from Jon Sims and Scott Harrelson, wanted to play their usual up-tempo game, but the Titans wouldn't allow it.

"We tried to push it, but [New Town] does a great job of keeping it in the 50s," Dulaney coach Matt Lochte said. "We talked about if we get to 60 points, we're going to win this game. They didn't allow that to happen. We're not the only team they haven't allowed that to happen. That's a good team.

"We knew what they were going to do, and they still did it to darn near perfection."